newnative

Biden and Harris need to get on the stick and mount a massive Federal response to the storm. So far I'm not seeing much of that--but, perhaps its not being reported. They need to be seen to be on top of things and totally engaged in making things better, and as quickly as possible. How many politicians have been voted out of office or were severely criticized because they went on vacation when a storm hit, didn't clear the roads fast enough after a snow storm, didn't respond fast enough, or were perceived to be not acting fast enough, after a disaster? So close to the election, this is really important for the Democrats, They are in charge of the clean-up, not Trump. They will be blamed if the effort falls short, or even if it is thought by some to have fallen short, not Trump. Trump can make hay with this--and likely will. My brother and his wife live in North Carolina and things have been bad for several days now. The interstates have been closed, there's no electricity, and there's a lot of storm damage. For now, they are living in their motor home, rather than their house, as they can sparingly use some sort of generator with the motor home. The first day or two of a disaster there's a can-do spirit in play but that grows old quickly when you go day after day with no electricity, roads are still blocked, food starts to go bad, etc. Day three or four, you start to look around for someone to blame. Like I said, get on the stick, Biden and Harris. Time's a'-wastin'.

And, when it finally ends up killing you, after giving you '5 or 6' warnings, it will also be your fault. Back to the topic, all stray dogs need to be rounded up and put down.

Total fraud. How could anyone respect somebody who compares Trump to Hitler, calls Trump an 'idiot' and 'reprehensible', and then turns around and goes to work for him. Talk about reprehensible behavior. Total fraud. Also reprehensible, passing himself off as growing up in a life of poverty and deprivation, when, in reality, his family was middle class. At times, the family had a six-figure income. What kind of a 'poor' child gets to take golf lessons, for heaven's sake? When he proclaims, "I grew up poor.", it's a complete lie. Total fraud. His ability to tell bald-faced lies, and not just about himself, with, apparently, no moral compass, does put him in good stead with his Hitler wannabe Trump. It also explains why Trump picked him. Two lying birds of a feather. Super scary if Dead Man Walking 78 year-old Trump gets elected and this lying total fraud is a heart beat away from the presidency.

Buying a condo--anywhere--is usually a big investment--at least it is for me. As others have said, you should have done better checking of this project before you purchased. That would include checking the AGM meeting minutes, checking the financials, checking the swimming pool and gym, checking the general condition of the project, making trips to the project both in the daytime and at night, and interviewing some residents, if possible. Doing these things should have alerted you, at the minimum, to the impending rise in condo fees, the parking problem, and the fee to use the gym. I certainly would not pay the delinquent fees the previous owner owed and I would let the Juristic know that they made an error in producing the debt-free letter when the condo was not debt-free. Show your closing paperwork indicating the date when you took possession of the condo and let it be known that you will only be paying condo fees from that date forward. Don't be afraid to make a stink--either with the juristic, with the condo board, or, if necessary, at the next AGM. Or, all of them, if necessary. The rise in condo fees is not necessarily a bad thing. Many older projects have condo fees that are way too low to properly maintain the project. Either fees are raised or the project slides downhill. At the last older condo project I owned at, the condo fee was too low to maintain the project in the style the residents were accustomed to. Rather than raise the condo fee, which I think was 40 baht/sqm, there was a special assessment each year I owned there to cover the shortfall. The shortfall special assessment added to the regular condo fee translated to a total condo fee of around 60 baht/sqm., depending on that year's special assessment amount. I was happy to pay the special assessment because the condo was a big investment for me and I wanted to protect my investment.

After his first term Trump was named the worst president in US history. Let's not have a second term.

I registered on-line and got the voting materials emailed to me but I am required to mail in my ballot, which I have ready to go. It would be great if all states allowed voting by email, without having to actually go to the post office and mail in a paper ballot. My state makes registering and voting needlessly complex, in my opinion. My first registration by email was rejected. They required my last address where I lived and I was able to come up with the street address but I neglected to include my unit number, which I couldn't remember as I had moved so many times with condo flips. So, rejected; I had to research what the last condo number had been and submit the registration again. Accepted this time. Voting is also more complex than it needs to be with my state. There are numerous steps involved, from printing the ballot to filling it out to putting it in an envelope to printing a voter statement to fill out and sign to pasting the voter statement to the envelope to sealing the envelope to putting that envelope into another envelope to printing the voter address to send the second envelope to pasting the voter address to the second envelope to sealing the second envelope to--finally--mailing it. Phew!

For a used car in that price range, I would look for something from Toyota or Honda, with Toyota being my first choice.

As I said in an earlier post, my spouse and I have a Sealion on order, which is about the same size as our current CR-V. We will likely buy the top model, costing 1,039,000 baht. BYD is giving us 600,000 baht for our 2018 Honda CR-V. The car cost us 1.5MB new so driving it for 6 years has cost us 900,000 baht in depreciation. If we also drive the Sealion for 6 years and, worst case, it loses 100% of its value, it will have cost us 1,039,000 baht in depreciation. Not much difference between 900,000 and 1,039,000 baht--and we might save the difference in reduced fuel costs. We know going in that depreciation with the Sealion will most likely be a good deal worse than if we bought another, more expensive, Honda CR-V. But, I very much doubt that the Sealion will have zero value in 6 years. We will have also saved from the get-go by spending 1.039MB for the Sealion vs. spending 1.7MB for the CR-V model we might have purchased if it looked newer and had a PHEV model.

And, if you're a Republican, you should be thrilled with that. Republicans for years have been pushing the 'trickle down' theory to support their tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich. When the rich get richer, the benefits will trickle down to the rest of us, according to the theory So, if the rich are, indeed, 'doing great under Biden', if 'trickle down' actually works, then millions of regular voters, Democrats and Republicans, should be doing great, too, with all that money trickling down to them, and they should be rewarding the Democrat ticket in the November election with their votes. Umm. Hang on. Maybe the Republicans shouldn't be too thrilled . . .

I can't speak to European pension fund performance but my USA stock portfolio, with mostly American stocks, has been doing great under Biden/Harris. This year it is up $25,000, 12.82%, and recently has been hitting all-time highs. For the past two years, it's up $51,000, 29.94%. I started my stock portfolio in 2021, with money inherited from a family trust. I don't know how it would have fared under Trump but I'm happy with what Biden/Harris has delivered.

We have at least 6 or 8 stray dogs in our housing project. Nobody owns them. A Thai lady who does not even live in the project sometimes comes and feeds them--which we have repeatedly asked her not to do. Unfortunately, it is a new project with no gate security so she can just walk right in. Spouse called the local municipality and asked that the dogs be removed. Instead, they sent somebody to round up the dogs and I think they were neutered and then brought back to the project. Spouse argued to them that nobody owns the dogs and the project does not want the dogs back--to no avail. Back they came. Back they still are. Madness.

Bravo! You hit it! Thanks.

I'm seeing lots of new recruits for the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club, including the usual number who haven't been to Pattaya anytime recently, yet are still compelled to spend their time reading about and commenting on a city they neither visit or live in. Welcome to the club, you!

Good, short, accurate description of Trump--loser with no redeeming values. Especially loser--twice with the actual voters in two presidential elections. Loser by 2.8 MILLION votes in 2016. Loser by 7 MILLION votes in 2020. LOSER TWICE OVER. And, likely a loser for the THIRD time with the actual voters in 2024.

Vows to eradicate poverty as she enters a grand mansion. Any disconnect there?

Not my take, but I respect your viewpoint. I think she mostly did 'give a toss'--but not every waking minute of every day of the 19 years of her show. So, cancel her. Also not buying Markle being a horrible tyrant, either. I think both are victims of some 'underlings', frankly, not really knowing their place in the workplace hierarchy--and seizing on, and likely blowing up, a few instances of perhaps poor behavior to 'get at' the boss. I do wonder if reprimanding an employee is now considered poor behavior by a boss, who is not being 'kind' and 'loving'. Maybe only if they are female and named Markle. Or, a certain magazine editor wearing Prada. We're seeing the same thing with Harris--some stories of staff turnover. She must be the dreaded 'difficult to work with'. Can't have that, at least not in a woman. Note: If an 'underling is reduced to tears', likely they are the wrong person for a demanding, high-pressure job and should look for something more suitable to their delicate temperament. Perhaps teaching flower arranging. These days, with social media so pervasive, a few negative stories, true or not, can easily leave a false, unfair impression. I think that is mostly the case with both women, with some envy and jealousy thrown in for good measure. I re-read some of the Ellen workplace stories and found myself thinking, what's the big deal. Pretty thin, watery gruel to feast on considering 19 years of workplace behavior involving hundreds of workers to dissect and find fault with. The sole possibly serious charge I noticed involved alleged sexual harassment or other questionable behavior by three male producers, who were fired. People are human, they aren't perfect. If a celebrity chooses to use their public position to try to both promote and to try to be kind, compassionate, etc., I don't think it's hypocrisy if they aren't always successful in practicing what they preach. And, it is certainly not hypocrisy, in my book, to believe and promote love, joy, etc., as important things to strive for in general, but also be focused, in the workplace as a boss running a business, on other important things--like keeping the business afloat. Ellen did that for 19 years, keeping her show at or near the top of the ratings, not an easy thing by any means. And, at the same time, keeping her workers employed, including, it seems, some rather resentful, ungrateful ones.

Dems need to ignore the polls and run flat out until election day. Dems need to remember that there are Trump supporters who are deeply embarrassed to admit to a pollster that they support such an awful candidate--so they'll lie to the pollsters. Sad they support a candidate so terrible they can't mention the name.

What a load of BS. Likely, I am in the minority but I find the whole 'mean boss' bruhaha to be much ado about absolutely nothing. She's the boss. She's paying your salary and she's responsible for you having a job in the first place, and continuing to have an income and a job to go to. That means she is not required to be nice. That means she can be demanding of her staff. That means she can be tough. That means she's not required to befriend every person working for her. That means she doesn't have to pretend to like or care about everyone working for her. Don't like it? Quit. There's the door. It's the Ellen Show , not the Coffee Runner Show. Not the Deputy Assistant Flunky Show. I have no doubt that some incidents happened and I also have no doubt that they were publicized greatly out of proportion to what actually happened by a few disgruntled staff members. It bears remembering that her show was on for 19 years. That's a long time--of course there were bound to be some incidents, disagreements, differences of opinion, arguments, stressful times, etc., in that many years of putting on a very high-pressure, daily show. I doubt her management style was much different from what a man's would be in that same environment--but as a woman that still doesn't fly. And, a gay woman . . . ? Strong, tough man--admired. Strong, tough woman--bitch. What I find utterly laughable is the scorn for her, which does not seem to have abated much. I imagine there's some resentful envy in there, too. Apparently, she is 'shameless' for not showing quite enough remorse for being a tough boss, for not being friendly enough or caring enough to her employees. Apparently, what remorse she has shown has been judged as being not sincere enough to satisfy the great unwashed of social media. I imagine she's thinking, I really don't know why I need to do anything. I totally agree.

Actually, more than 60% of Chinese visitors to Thailand are traveling independently, and not in groups.

My Dad died in his sleep about a week shy of his 95th birthday. He had some heart ailments later in life but was sharp as a tack right to the end. Mom lived to 101 and died of old age. She had dementia beginning in her 80s and it gradually got worse. But, the last time I saw her I think she recognized me. Dad and Mom lived remarkable and interesting lives. Born in 1914 and 1918, they went from riding in horse-drawn wagons as young children to flying on the Concorde on one of their trips to Europe. My Dad worked for the US Dept. of Defense and the family was stationed a lot of different places around the world--including Germany right after World War II, probably Dad's most interesting assignment. I miss them both but I know I am indeed lucky to have had them as a part of my life for as long as I did.

I like your idea to eliminate the 2 EC votes each state gets for their Senators. What troubles me the most about the EC is one candidate winning the popular vote but still losing the election. I'd like to see extra EC votes awarded to the candidate that wins the nationwide popular vote--maybe 51 votes, one for each state and DC.

Including me. This Virginian is getting his mail-in ballot ready.

Thanks!

Several posters, including myself, have mentioned that a shallow pitch can cause leaking with tiled roofs. In an earlier post I mentioned my neighbor's house. Her main tile roof has a steep pitch and no leak problems. Her porch tile roof has a shallow pitch, something like yours. It leaks, even though the house is only about a year old. Your roof also appears to be on the shallow side so that might be the problem.

Lock both of them up. They can be cell mates.